Fireworks
by Cantoris
Summary: Response to New Year's Eve Challenge on Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum. JJ and Rossi share their first New Year's Eve.


My response to Chit Chat on Author's Corner New Year's Challenge, because my mini-resolution this year to be more disciplined as a writer. I hope that happens as I accept writing challenges and try to go outside of my comfort zone. Hence, romance.

For whoever supplied the pairing and prompts, I hope you enjoy. For everyone else, well, I hope you enjoy, too.

Your assigned pairing is: Rossi/JJ  
Your assigned prompts are: fireworks, midnight, champagne bottle opening

* * *

At midnight, David Rossi woke with a start to the sound of fireworks. With a crick in his neck, he looked around the darkened living room of his cabin in Little Creek, getting his bearings. The source of the fireworks he saw was the TV, left on and now displaying the colorful explosions in New York City. The ball had already dropped and people were cheering on the screen. The grandfather clock several feet away from him confirmed that it had just past midnight, and it was now a new year.

A new year and new changes for Dave which he hoped would continue. The biggest and most important change of all was the reason behind his stiff neck in the form of the beautiful blonde still asleep and using him as a pillow. How JJ was sleeping through the noise he had no idea, but he supposed that mothers learned to get their sleep when they could.

It had to be relative, he decided, as he had noticed that while JJ could sleep through Mudgie barking, the TV blaring, or the fire alarm one notable evening, she never missed an alarm, a phone call, or the sound of Henry waking in the night.

Henry had been put to sleep hours ago and remained so with his new best friend Mudgie asleep on the floor next to the boy's bed. It had taken a lot of convincing to get JJ and Henry to move in with him, but he had persevered and won in the wake of Will's departure for New Orleans (because, really, the fact that they remained engaged even after Henry was born and growing without actually tying the knot was ridiculous).

Dave tightened the arm curled around JJ's shoulders, still amazed that this amazing woman was willing to trust him with herself and with her son. He leaned over and pressed a gentle kiss on her temple, smiling at the sleepy sounds this elicited.

Slowly, bright blue eyes opened and squinted in the darkness until they found his face.

"Dave?"

"Happy New Year, cara," Dave said quietly, pressing another kiss on her cheek.

"Hey, it's New Year's, don't I get a kiss on the lips?"

Dave obliged with a smile. JJ sat up slightly and stretched her arms and back before settling back into his embrace.

"We slept through it, huh? That's so pathetic."

"Not when you take into account we spent the last two weeks waking up with Henry for the chicken pox," Dave pointed out.

JJ chuckled. "Well, one of us woke up with Henry for the last two weeks."

"Can I help it if your mom ESP goes off more quickly than mine?" Dave protested.

JJ chuckled again. "Did you just admit that you have mom ESP?"

Dave groaned. "Not even an hour into the new year and you're already giving me a hard time. Wasn't your resolution going to be to be nicer to me?"

"When did I say that?"

"Three hours ago, after two and a half bottles of Asti."

"Then you were drunk enough to hallucinate because I know I wasn't drunk enough to say that. Speaking of, go open that last bottle, I'm wide awake now."

Dave smirked as JJ eased off him so he could stand. She planted a playful smack on his butt as he passed which he let slide. His revenge would come later. He retrieved the last bottle of Asti from the fridge, placing it on the counter and unwrapping the foil. The cork popped off with its signature sound and bubbled nicely without making too much of a mess. Their flutes were still on the table in front of the couch, so Dave just brought the bottle out with him.

JJ had turned one lamp and was already reclaiming her plate of stuffed mushrooms that had been forgotten as they had fallen asleep. For their first New Year together, they had decided to keep it simple and private with a family movie to watch with Henry before putting him to bed, followed by watching the festivities for themselves. In preparation for a long night, Dave had prepared a variety of finger foods to sample throughout the night.

Add the alcohol and two people used to taking rest while they could, and they had fallen asleep on the couch.

Dave poured the Asti and handed JJ her glass. She took a sip and handed the plate over to him.

"Aw, you are being nicer to me," he teased, reclaiming his seat and smiling as JJ again curled up next to him.

"Don't want to lose my pillow," she replied. "Especially when you wear the cashmere sweater."

Dave made a mental note to wear softer fabrics more often if this was the kind of affection he got.

The fireworks had ended on TV, and Dave smiled as JJ changed the channel to a midnight movie of _The Princess Bride_. With their fireworks, they had missed the opening scenes and caught up to the destined lovers just as Westley was saying a heartfelt goodbye to Buttercup.

"You falling asleep on me again?" Dave asked when JJ had been silent for several minutes.

"Nope. What about you, old man?"

"Old? I'll show you old."

After placing the plate and glass in her hands back on the table, Dave reversed positions so that JJ was trapped beneath him on the couch. That JJ let him demonstrated her willingness as she was not a woman to let anything happen to her she didn't want. Dave leaned down and gave his lover a proper New Year's kiss, reveling in how she responded. When he pulled away, he smiled to hear her protest.

"How about for a resolution, you be nicer to me and I'll be nice to you?" Dave proposed.

For answer, JJ brought him back down for another searing kiss and began to work on removing his clothing.

"You drive a hard bargain," JJ managed to gasp out between lip locks, wriggling against him suggestively.

After that, they made their own fireworks.


End file.
